Tsipras faces rebellion

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faces two days of parliamentary argy-bargy in Athens to secure approval for a package of austerity measures that could tear his coalition apart. With the world looking on, Tsipras will have to submit a bill to parliament on Tuesday containing sales-tax increases and pension cuts that go against his own Syriza party’s pledges. Syriza lawmakers and members of the Independent Greeks, the junior coalition partner, have said they will rebel against the cuts. Panos Kammenos, leader of the junior partner in Tsipras’ coalition government, called the bailout plan a German-led “coup.”

Without the support from his own party and coalition partners, Tsipras will have to rely on opposition support to carry the legislation needed to keep Greece in the euro.

The Greeks are furious that the EU has let them down.

In his first interviewsinceresigning as finance minister, Yani Varoufakis took aim at Greece’s creditors and said the austerity will only help the far right, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.

“This has nothing to do with economics,’’ Varoufakis said. “It has nothing to do with putting Greece on the way to recovery. This is a new Versailles Treaty that is haunting Europe again, and the prime minister knows it. He knows that he’s damned if he does and he’s damned if he doesn’t.

“In the coup d’état the choice of weapon used in order to bring down democracy then was the tanks. Well, this time it was the banks. The banks were used by foreign powers to take over the government.”

Meanwhile, Greek public servants will go on strike tomorrow in protest over the draconian bailout conditions.

Summing up, the deal needs to be passed by the hostile Greek parliament, and also supported through six other European national parliaments before they can even start talking about money. This is why Credit Suisse analyst Andrew Garthwaite says there’s a 30 per cent chance that Greece could still exit the Eurozone.